Expert: Susan Rand - 6/7/2008

Question
I as a zillion other people want to write that graet American story,win a pulitzer and then get the nobel in literature. LOL. But if someone seriously does have a writing that he want to send to a publisher how do you do it. Must you first "protect" what you sending with some sort copywrite?

Answer
Hello Joseph:

It is difficult to answer this question without knowing whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, a story, play, or book, and in what country you want to publish it. I must assume it is the U.S.

1.  The first thing you need to do is make sure your manuscript is free of grammar and spelling mistakes (as your question should be, but isn't);

2. Get a professional to edit it;

3. Prepare the MS according to established submissions guidelines,

4. Try to get an agent interested in representing it. Book-length submissions are not made to publishers any more, but to agents. This may take months, or even years, so I hope you are determined. The agent's job is first, to let you know if your book is salable or not, then to accept or reject it.

That's the basic process for fiction. Non-fiction is a different process and requires a different question.

I hope this helps. If it does, a nice rating would be greatly appreciated.  I am proud of my high score over 1350+ questions.

And good luck with your writing!